Blogging for the Gray Wolf

Well here’s the grim news. Montana FWP is now saying one wolf was killed by a bow-hunter on Sunday, instead of two wolves as had been reported. It’s all just sickening and depressing. Meanwhile over in Idaho, the death toll for wolves now stands at ten and counting. How much more carnage before America wakes up and speaks out??

Archery season’s first wolf killed Sunday

Montana’s archery season for wolves opened Saturday, and the following day, the first wolf was killed.

Ron Aasheim, spokesman for Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, said the wolf, a male, was harvested in Stillwater County.

The kill marks the first in the state’s 2011 wolf hunt, which is only the second of its kind to take place. The first occurred in 2009, and both hunts have been surrounded by debate over how many wolves should be killed and whether they should be hunted at all.

one wolf, 2 wolves still sickening. i wish so many diferent things for these hunters…politicians…. what can we actually do, i have written to everyone talk about this topic to everyone…email offices politicians everything….nothing happens….what can we do to stop this?…is this the end of the wolves?…. a part of my sould will also die when wolves disappeared….the wolf is my guardian…. what can we do?

yessenia….I know this sounds simple but we have to speak out. Rallies, candlelight vigils anything you can think of that will raise awareness and spread the word. Boycotting the wolf states is another tool. We outnumber the hunters and haters. but have you noticed there is very little news about the wolves on the national news? This story has been buried. I think it’s because the Dems are responsible for this and don’t want people to know it was Obama who delisted wolves. That is the most shocking part of this story. Democrats did this. It was the Democrat Tester that led the way on this and all the Dem Senators voted for the wolf rider, except three. That is the shame of this. That story needs to be shouted from the roof tops. They betrayed wolves and the ESA.

hello nabeki.
i am absolutely devastated at the slaughter of these amazing and
beautiful wolves in the u.s.
however, i heard on the bbc last night that wolves are now going to be hunted insouthern france and i wondered if you knew about it.
sadly if hunters have their way,there will be no free wolves left in this
world.
that would be a soul destroying situation,and a world i would no longer
wish to live in as they would then want to wipe out all the bears,big cats
and all the other non-human creatures we share this planet with.
thank you for what you are doing to try ro help.and please keep sending me your e-mails heartbreaking though they are.

jaqui welcome….Wolf persecution is global. Wolves are scapegoated almost everywhere they exist. I really believe it’s because they are very similar to us and hunters don’t like the idea that a thinking entity, like a pack of wolves, is in the forest outsmarting them. They have to play dirty to catch them. It’s a very sad, sick world we live in. Also ranchers play a big role in wolf persecution.

‘harvested’ sigh… sounds like a cash crop to me! I’ll be the first to admit I don’t understand the math they are using with these hunts. tags sold far outnumber actually wolves. how do they stop hunters from killing the entire species when the hunter with the 221 st wolf comes up????

“…Critics say there is no evidence wolf attacks are out of control and they blame some of these sheep deaths on wild dogs. Moreover, as farmers receive 130 Euros (£115; $190) in compensation for every sheep killed by a wolf, critics claim there is an incentive to exaggerate the problem.

Jean-Francois Darmstaedter, the secretary general of Ferus, a French wolf protection agency, says the shepherds need to work harder to protect their sheep – though some shepherds, he points out, are wolf supporters.

“Remember there are eight million dogs in France and 200 wolves,” he said. “And I would bet there are more dog attacks in these mountains than wolf attacks. In this small region here we have a pack of 15 wolves, and something like 8,000 wild dogs. They aren’t always in the mountains, but when they are, they cause a real mess….”

Sounds familiar, anyone? Same old story, different continent… Wolf gets all the blame and the bullets. Shepherd gets a cheque from the government in return…

May I add we had a small victory in Sweden, whose government gave up the planned wolfhunt for this winter under EU-pressure… however they are allready planning their comeback and hope to resume hunting in 2012..

I really dont get what they are thinking, earlier this year they even wanted to release new wolves.. seriously what for, providing more targets for the hunters in winter? I could go on and on about it but just let me tell you the Sweden story is almost just as insane as yours. “Civilisation” ftw.

Why cant humans start “managing” themselves, thats what the world needs. We are allready running out of nature.

Fighting against humanity’s stupidity is like fighting against the world. Here we talk wolves but the entire world is being consumed by hatred, ignorance, apathy and senseless killing. It feels so hopeless when you realise what you are up against, trying to overcome something that seems so deeply anchored within humans

This is disgusting and repugnant beyond words. There is NO excuse for this slaughter. Wolves are not a food source, so the tired old justification of “We eat everything we kill” isn’t true. Killing a magnificent animal like a wolf is nothing more than feeding the egos of a bunch of psychopathic macho men. And don’t get me started on what I think of Obama and his cronies for delisting the wolf. I certainly expected better of Democrats.

Any kind of death for the wolves is horrorble. People who kill wolves are not people at all, they are murderers.
Wolves are the most beautiful and loving animals I have ever seen. They will fight for their packs and will take care of their packs better than some people take care of their own families.
They help keep the wildherds healthy and the environment healthy too. By keeping the wildherds moving, keeps the grass growing and the trees, to insure the growth of the forests.
Ranchers and sportsmen and women are to blame for the shooting of the wolves. Ranchers moving in on federal land to put their livestock on. By doing this they have encroached on the wolves territory. When they have some dead animals, they sometimes do not dispose of the carcasses. This leads to the predators eating the animals . Which is used to tell that the wolves killed the animal.

John…I’m beside myself with grief. When I think of the wolves unsuspecting and not understanding why they are being chased, shot and killed, it’s almost more then I can bear. This is the worst possible of all outcomes that we fought so hard to prevent. It seems the world has accepted this deviant behavior as if it’s the new normal. Oh, gut the ESA, delist wolves via budget rider, trap wolves, shoot them with arrows, take the Idaho population from 1000 to 150 wolves, all of this happening in a little over two years. We knew this is what the states would do it they ever got control of the wolves but I had no idea the Democrats would abandon wolves and the ESA, making back room deals with their lives. I’ve lost faith in our government. Who could have imagined this would happen under a Democrat administration? Obama is the worst president I’ve experienced in my lifetime.

Hey. As John Livingston would say, and did, not Earth, We on Earth, are one cosmic moment in the whole and We are arrogant. Everything, every living plant and creature is evaluated in terms of our perceived needs, our desires. There is no end to our desires. Our mores are hopelessly perverted. Conservation means management of our resources. Lives are commodities. Therefore animals are property, Man, the Commodifier.
Once people lived in accordance with nature, whole epics of human history lived in concert with mountains and rivers that were honoured as living entities. I am an ethical vegetarian. I fought family and was overwhelmed. Later I fought introjected values first in myself, then in others. Still there were lessons to be learned about nature. Predators, by their own greatness of spirit, have forced on me a larger view. The supposed great qualities of humans I’ve found lastingly and unreservedly in the predators I have known. No small number have been Mahatma.
A paraphrase. You can’t love nature and hate predators.

Sports hunters are diseased as even bear can be made psychotic, and for much the same reason, a long history of abuse at the hands of people.
It is all the more remarkable therefore to meet with people who do not consider the lives of others a commodity. In that Indigenous people are remarkable. They never claimed to own the land; they hunted for survival. If some now bargain with technocrats in the language of ownership and commodification, as in the instance of fur trappers, it has been visited upon them. There are therefore Coronados and this staying loyal effort of yours.
A friend read something I’d written. She called it a prayer. It begins..
Amer Indians speak of grass, the hair of their mother. In Earth’s body there are relatives, only relatives. For my relatives I desire Hope. For my relatives I desire Peace.

The good news is, I tried to fax Senators Tester and Simpson. Their line was busy. I’ll try again tonight. We here in Toronto having once demonstrated at the U.S. Consulate are planning to return, and perhaps we can form a ‘presence’.
C. Morgan McNeil
Toronto
For the Wolves

Thank you C. Morgan, I’m so moved by your writing. You so elegantly expressed what we are all thinking. This is one of the many things I love about the blog. People coming together to express their love and care for our wild creatures and wild places. Your words keep me going, keep me motivated and give me strength. Thank you for caring and thank you for sharing with us.

Funny I thought it was the other way around. People who come to this blog feel overwhelmed. What you say is supportive and clear. Your advice is doable. I sent a report on wolves in Sweden@http://blogforwolves.blogspot.com/2010/01/entire-wolf-pack-killed.html
to an old friend, a Canadian living in Sweden. She teaches political science and is most concerned for world peace. She is sincere.
I understand the temptation, the need to prefer ungulates to predators.
I pasted the Livingston remarks in an email. And recently I wrote to her about Aldo Leopold’s work describing trophic cascades. Eco systems need their predators. It’s just that I don’t see what we can do with political science when our societies are sick at heart. We fall into traps of our own making when talking about creation. Science has little to add to what we would know innately, should our relationship to Earth be one of awe.

I pointed out that without accepting responsibility for their use of these miserable slaves to taste, vegetarians who use cow’s milk are predators. The difference being, preying on cows, they were once the size of deer, is especially harmful to cows in ways that are lasting and pervasive, and though it’s not intended, (or is it?) to much of humanity. For each up bred deer, now cow, it means a lifetime of betrayal. From birth to slaughter their experience is one of perpetual loss and mounting fear culminating in protracted horror. We slaughter 42.5 cows per second. Many are dairy. Each cow eats enough to feed a small village for a year. One child dies of starvation every 2 seconds or so. We were made to admit our part in deaths to e coli. As a result we no longer feed dairy cows to cows. We feed them to pigs and chickens. It’s not just the sports hunters.

They too are product. Right now they’ve got Republicans and Democrats vying for their favours. Societies based on material gain rather than on communal living have vested interest in lives. Lives are commodities and are subject to the machinations of greedy people. A fairly recent UN report formally establishes that agribusiness does more to contribute to global warming than do the automotive and airline industries in all their aspects, manufacture, use and creation of infrastructure combined. Water tables are destroyed, forests cut down for pasture.

The wolves and their ways look good. And I for one would happily live among them. Among feral children of modern times restored to human culture some acquire language and say they are happy. Never bite the hand that feeds you. Photo documentation shows others, captive staring blankly. But there was a wolf girl at Devils River Texas who escaped to live with her wolves. Livingston offered a solution to our crisis of environment; it is a crisis of the spirit. He thought we should reclaim- access wildness. Return to nature.

I believe many who write to this page long to return to nature. Live as the wolves live, or the deer or the geese. Whales made it back and forth before deciding on the sea. You encourage us to do what we can. There are many compassionate people. Let’s hope the meek among humans win for Nature, for the Wolves.

Both Senators Tester and Simpson have received by fax a long letter with documentation correlating sports hunters and sports hunting to increased incidence of child molestation, wife abuse and violent crime in society.
I’ve just received your post of the most recent deaths. I close to read.
C MM
For the Wolves
For Peace

I’M IN TEARS….AND I STILL CAN’T BELIEVE…I’M SICKING AND I ASK FROM MYSELF,WHY????? ABOUT THE FRENCH WOLVES… I’M IN THE “KLAN DU LOUP” GROUP FOR HE PROTECTION FRENCH WOLVES.NABEKI,IF YOU WANT TO WRITE NEW POST ABOUT FRENCH WOLVES,PLEASE CONTACT THEM. THEY SPEAK VERY WELL IN ENGLISH.THEY ARE VERY SERIOUS,I’M SURE THEY ARE THE BEST IN FRANCE. YES, WE HAVE PROBLEM HERE,TOO…BUT NOT HOW BBC EXPLAINED. YOU MUST KNOW IN FRANCE(not only southern),WE HAVE ONLY BETWEEN 150-180 WILD WOLVES. I MEAN IN ALL(!!!) FRANCE. SHAME ON MINISTER OF ECOLOGIE… I CONTACTED HER,I HATE WITH ALL MY HEART. FEW WEEKS AGO THE FRENCH MEDIA (i hate,too!) WAS VERY STUPIDE ABOUT ONE WOLF .HE WAS KILLED! HE WAS ONLY 27 KG…IT’S MEAN HE WAS ONLY 16-18 MONTHS OLD.BUT HE “ATE” IN 30 DAYS 45 SHEEPS… BUT THIS SAD STORY IT WAS NOT IN SOUTH…IN SOUTH WAS PROBLEM THE LAST YEAR. FRENCH PEOPLES LIKE WOLVES AND LOT OF WAS NOT HAPPY WHEN THE YOUNG WOLF WAS KILLED! PLEASE CONTACT “KLAN DU LOUP” ON FACEBOOK FOR MORE INFORMATION. EVERYWHERE WAR ON THE WOLVES…. THIS MUST BE STOP!!!!!!! SO SAD HOWLSSSSSSSSSSSSS

I am wondering why all the discrepancies with the numbers reported. First 2 then 1, then 11 now 10. Uncertainty begets only more uncertainty while wolves will continue to die needlessly and their populations become unsustainable under the reckless watch of indifference. And I refuse to put my trust in hatred, incompetence, or anyone associated with the hunts to keep an accurate account.

So many thoughts trouble me and I am caught between worlds as I vacillate between uneasy emotions. Emotions that are both frightening and relentless, yet are our reality. I refuse to acknowledge the word “harvest” in describing this slaughter-fest. The word contorts and misleads, adding only insult to injury. You harvest crops , not vital, sentient beings. Our predecessors once celebrated their abundance with reverence, and those harvests were considered a great blessing. This brutality is not a blessing for the wolves, only a crown of jewels for man’s ego.

We are a sad world in dire need of salvation. Thoreau said it most eloquently when he spoke of wilderness: “In wildness is the preservation of the world”. Yet mankind is losing its battle for survival with every precious thread of wilderness that is lost. For every species that goes extinct, we lose another integral part of who we are. And we lose another piece of our humanity every time we close our eyes and ignore our natural instincts. Instincts that validate our connection to the Earth and empathize with the suffering and injustice around us.

Hunters debate they are preserving nature by culling predators to save ungulate populations, when in truth they are only “conserving” these animals by artificially boosting their numbers to appease their own selfishness. From my perspective, the only exchange between a hunter and a wolf is that of an imposed unfairness. There is no pact of agreement, the hunter decides to kill a wolf in any method permitted, no matter how inhumane, and the wolf must die to complete the contest.

A contest to prove what….wit…skill… bravado? For what purpose…to prove himself a man, release pent up anger… for trophy? And prove to whom…other hunters….himself….or perhaps the wolf.. …but he has just lost his life. The hunter is the only one left to boast of his skill, reap the reward of his prize and savor the legacy of his prowess. A hollow victory.

Barry Lopez refers to what he calls “the conversation of death” between predator and prey in the natural world.

“Predator and prey grow stronger together by means of a series of tests, through all the years of their lives, tests that pit them against each other at both psychological and physiological levels, tests that weed both culturally and genetically.”

“What transpires in those moments of staring between predator and prey is probably a complex exchange of information regarding the appropriateness of a chase and a kill.”

” The moose’s death is something that is mutually agreeable. The moose may be constrained to die because he is old or injured, but there is still the ritual and the choice. There is nobility in such a death. The wolf grows strong eating an animal that knows how to die with its whole heart; he wastes away on the flesh of animals that do not know how to live or die. In just the same way Indians were reluctant to have anything to do with cattle. They would not eat them, raise them, or milk them, because there was no power in cattle.”

Sigurd F. Olsen, for many years a professor and college administrator in Minnesota, lamented of his feelings after seeing a news story about the killing of six timber wolves by airplane:

” The picture showed them strung up on a wing of the plane and the hunters proudly beside them. As I studied that picture and the applauding captions, I wondered if the day would ever come that we would understand the importance of the wolves.”

“Knowing the nature of our traditions of the old frontier and the pioneer complex that still guides our attitudes toward wildlife. I realized that it might never come. We still do not realize that today we can enjoy the wilderness without fear, still do not appreciate the part that predators play in the balanced ecology of any natural community. We seem to prefer herds of semi-domesticated deer and elk and moose, swarms of small game with their natural alertness gone. It is as though we were interested in conserving only a meat supply and nothing of the the semblance of the wild.”

Hunter’s will claim what they want for their own glory and kill without conscience to satisfy their blood lust, it’s as simple as that. But the wolf, bobcat, mountain lion or bear, have no choice in deciding their fate, and there is no nobility in their senseless death. All that will be accomplished by the continuation of this madness is the further impoverishment of an eco system, already imperiled, as humanity spirals closer towards an unforgiving abyss of no return. And in this…we have sealed our own fate.

I apologize for taking up so much space…. if only a few more words or a few more thoughts would shatter the nightmare…could make the wolf’s suffering cease, and bring him safety.

I lament with Sigurd….will the day ever come when we truly understand and appreciate the importance of the wolf….?

I hope that all wolf supporters attend the Howl Across America Rally in Bozeman on September 18th to make the point clear that this destruction of wolves must be stopped now. Everyone needs to sign the petition and send it to our Montana Legislators (Tester, Baucus, Rehberg) to encourage them to get wolves back on the list as an endangered species. The petition is available at: Truth About Wolves- truthaboutwolves.org

I’ve seen those websites and do not give them any credence and so will not post them on the blog. The pups were about 4 1/2 months old because pups in the Northern Rockies are born around April 15 into May. They are the same age as Arctica and Nini, whose pics i posted. They are all born around the same time. These babies still have their milk teeth.

The anti-wolf crowd unfortunately has the support of the fish and game agencies. Hunters are their lively hood and they are going to do whatever it takes to protect their interests. The states are run like giant game farms, we don’t need almost 400,000 elk in the Northern Rockies, they are there for one thing only, to have enough game to make it easy for hunters to kill. They don’t want predators competing for the same prey base. Fish and game does the bidding of their customers, who are not us. They could care less what we think and care about. That’s why writing letters and emailing doesn’t work We need to boycott these states for what they are doing. The time for begging is over. The gloves are off. Wolf advocates MUST stand up for wolves by joining or creating rallies, orr whatever is in their comfort zone. The Internet is fine but we have to be a presence in real life. We talked about runs for wolves, bike for wolves. Whatever it takes. The light is shining on the wolf haters now and they don’t like all the negative publicity they’re getting, well they’re going to get more. We’ re not going away.

I will post a link to the Idaho hunt and the Montana hunt. Wyoming is planning on implementing their wolf slaughter plan next year I believe. If Obama is voted out of office and we get a new Secretary of Interior that would be a very good thing unfortunately the Republicans are just as bad.

Wolf hunts are pathological no less than bear bating or dog fighting.
Kick backs called subsidies are made with tax payers’ money to wealthy ranchers whose few losses to wolves represent gain.
Campaign funds pour in.

I visited thetruthaboutwolves.org in hopes of finding information to include in a handout and to sign their petition. In preparing a few words I discovered setting out bear bait is legal in many states of the U.S., mothers foraging for their cubs are shot, their cubs perish, souvenir photos are posted on the net by the sick men. Imagine such a man, a father. In South Carolina a bear may be chained and killed by dogs.

A post from the HSUS re bear bating.
“The problem with stuff like this is that it makes me sick and furious in equal measure, but I also feel completely impotent. I have a picture in my head of “people” enjoying barbarism, but they’re just people, I don’t know their names or their faces or what their houses look like, what jobs they do, so they become everybody, and as I am constantly surrounded by everybody…
I get stuck with this idea – that you are cruel and vile, and you deserve nothing but pain – and in the end all I’m left with is hate.”
These are my own feelings and yet I believe no living creature deserves hate or pain.

Sports hunters are product. Sports hunters have been pathologized. Cyclic abuse in a commodifying society has created them. My sympathy goes out to the author of that post, to hunted wolves, to baited bears, but never never to sports hunters and yet I believe forbearance is necessary.

Forbearance does not condone. We were gatherers who hunted out of necessity. Sports hunters are a corruption of our evolution. Europeans created a class system. They emptied their forests.The personal histories of European people, settlers in America.. a circumlocution, to massacre is not to settle.. have been handed down father to son. The West is still wild. Ten percent of Americans are in jail.

Within Nature there is agreement. Perhaps sports hunters are ex natura, an agent of change that will heal our sick society.To rid the world of them will require a system re evaluation, appropriate action on all levels of government. Western culture may heal its own sickness. Work has begun. Over the last decades research of family dynamics has shown the correlation between sports hunting, abuse of children, and violent crimes committed both within the family and throughout society. Animal abuse is a recognised predicative behaviour. As western societies and societies manipulated by western culture address systemic violence, a new, old really, consciousness will emerge, or so it is hoped by many.

James Strecker, in the preface to his book of poetry Beside the Hemlock Garden: On Lives and Rights wrote ‘one must give hope substance.’ On pages like this the connection of sports hunting to government is analysed, opposed and challenged. And the tools for challenge are shared.

Tester and Baucus received a copy of a letter I prepared for the Consul General and Ambassador. Rehberg will get his shortly.

This blog is dedicated to the memory of Wolf 253, the beloved Yellowstone Druid wolf named Limpy, who was shot and killed in March 08, on the very day ESA protections were lifted for the gray wolf, by the then Bush Administration.